Plant Science 158 (2000) 189 – 190
Book review
www.elsevier.com/locate/plantsci
Plant cell culture protocols, in: Methods in Molecu-lar Biology, Vol. 111, Robert D. Hall (Ed.), Hu-mana Press, hardcover, $. 89.50, ISBN: 0-896-03549-2
The book brings together a series of well-writ-ten, step-by-step protocols on the most frequently used techniques in plant cell and tissue culture, covering various aspects of culture initiation, maintenance, long-term storage and manipulation. The book is organised in seven parts totalling 37 chapters in over 400 pages. In addition to proto-cols on widely applied methods, each part includes representative protocols for more specialised techniques.
An introductory part covers the basics; the ma-terials and facilities required for in vitro plant cell and tissue culture, plus some very useful hints and precautionary notes for success. The second part, in eight chapters, deals mainly with cell culture and plant regeneration. Most frequently used pro-tocols for callus initiation, maintenance and plant regeneration in monocots and dicots are illustrated with examples from rice and potato, followed by protocols on somatic embryogenesis in cereals and conifers, represented by chapters focused on bar-ley and Piceasuspension cultures. Detailed proto-cols on specialised techniques in this part include direct cyclic somatic embryogenesis of cassava, immature inflorescence culture in cereals and sam-ple protocols for cryogenic and non-cryogenic long-term storage of plant material. The third book part contains a series of chapters focused on plant propagation in vitro via axillary shoot pro-liferation and meristem-tip culture, with reference to clonal propagation of specific plant species such as orchids, flower bulbs, and woody species. Next, applications for plant protoplasts, deal with the isolation, culture and plant regeneration from pro-toplasts, exemplified with Passiflora and Lolium, and with protoplast fusion for the production of
symmetric somatic hybrids and cybrids in Brassi-caceae. Well chosen examples of more sophisti-cated techniques for protoplast manipulation include microplast-mediated chromosome transfer, isolation, culture and plant regeneration from guard cell protoplasts and in vitro fertilisation based on microfusion of preselected isolated single gametes. Part five includes protocols for genomic manipulation, represented by examples on anther culture, microspore culture, and embryo rescue (missing figures 6 and 7 in chapter 26), as well as chapters on the use of in vitro culture for the generation and identification of nuclear and plas-tid mutants. Part six contains six protocols on genetic transformation, with representative exam-ples for the most widely used techniques,Agrobac
-terium-mediated transformation of leaf disks, direct gene transfer to protoplasts mediated by polyethylene-glycol and electroporation, mi-croprojectile bombardment to immature zygotic embryos, tissue electroporation and silicon carbide whiskers-mediated transformation. Importantly, this section includes step-by-step, easy-to-follow protocols for the production of transgenic plants in the most important cereal crops, such as rice, wheat and maize. Three chapters in the final sec-tion of the book are devoted to the subject of production of secondary metabolites in cell sus-pensions, and add further value to the collection of described protocols in the book.
All the chapters are well structured, profusely illustrated with original photographs and line drawings, and contain detailed descriptions of ma-terials, culture media and comprehensively de-scribed experimental procedures. The reader will certainly appreciate the precautionary notes and additional hints on each technique and each proto-col provided at the end of each chapter. Impor-tantly, both, the editor and the authors, acknowledge the inherent limitation of any
Book re6iew
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tion of protocols for in vitro plant cell and tissue culture, namely that each protocol will merely provide a robust baseline which the experimental-ist will need to modify, in a minor or sometimes major way, to establish reproducible tissue-culture procedures for the diversity of target plant species and genotypes.
In summary, this well-edited multi-authored book represents a valuable resource of informa-tion on in vitro culture methods in plants, which
will find extensive application on the laboratory bench.
German Spangenberg
Plant Biotechnology Centre,
Agriculture Victoria,
La Trobe Uni6ersity,
Bundoora, Vic. 3083,
Australia
E-mail: german.spangenberg@nre.vic.gov.au
